Measurement of paint or coating thickness on a target surface is an important objective for many industries. For example, in the aerospace industry, the overall weight and distribution of paint on aircraft surfaces may impact the aircraft's performance and efficiency.
Some methods for measuring paint thickness use tools, such as cutting wedges, drills, or grinding disks, to cut through the various layers of paint over a substrate in a target surface. The angle of the cut and the apparent visible width of each paint layer can then be used to calculate the actual thickness of each layer. Representative measurements over a surface area can then be used to determine the overall thickness and distribution of the paint over the entire surface area.
However, conventional tools used for cutting through the various paint layers may often over-penetrate or deform the underlying substrate. This is especially impactful when hundreds of measurements, and therefore hundreds of cuts, may be needed to measure paint thickness over a large target surface.
Accordingly, there is a desire for paint thickness measuring tools, such as paint borers, that can cut through layers of paint over a substrate while reducing over-penetration into the underlying substrate.